The Book of Love and Hate

The sexy, international spy novel you've been waiting for.

“The Book of Love and Hate is a most fantastic book—cinematic, a thriller that takes on both the big, global issues of our time as well as the intimate, personal demons that undo us . . . How incredible to come upon such a brainy, expertly written bona fide page-turner. Bravo!”

Jennifer Baron is a failed Olympic speed skater now running her family’s foundation and trying to stay sober, when her billionaire father disappears. She travels to Israel in search of him, becoming recklessly entangled in his illegal dealings and with his enigmatic lover, Gila, a former Mossad agent gone bad. Along the way, Jen is drawn into the shadow worlds of the Promised Land, where career-jockeying government agents, fake Orthodox Jews, queer Palestinians on the run, and other displaced wanderers scramble to find home amid the endless cycles of war, occupation, and heartbreak.

The Book of Love and Hate is an unraveling of white-collar crime and its motivations. It’s a testament to the magnificent oblivion of love and a shattering of inherited trauma, both personal and historical.

praise for The Book of Love and Hate

“Sanders, whose first novel, Kamikaze Lust, won a 2000 Lambda Literary Award, offers an international espionage thriller in which a failed Olympic speed skater falls for her father’s lover, a former Israeli army pilot turned corporate spy.”—Publishers Weekly

“The Book of Love and Hate is a fever dream of a novel, achingly sexy and at times startlingly funny. Lauren Sanders has written a stunning, genre-defying tale of sex, longing, ghosts, and spies. Every page teems with her gleaming sentences and deliciously dark wit. The ending still haunts me.”—J.T. Rogers, Tony Award-winning playwright, Oslo

“A richly suspenseful story of addiction, love/lust, and family ties—and how all of those things can hold us captive. A spectacular return from one of my favorite writers.”—Alison Gaylin, USA Today best-selling author of What Remains of Me